1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electrical connector assembly, and particularly to structures adapted to retain socket type contacts within the connector housing.
2. The Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, the female connector 10 having socket type contacts therein, generally includes a main housing 11 consisting of an island portion 12 and a base portion 13 commonly defining a plurality of passageways 14 for receiving a correspond number of socket type contacts 15 therein. A pressing plate 16 is attached to the rear portion of the housing 11 for abutment with the tail sections 17 of the contacts 15 so as to retain the contacts 15 in the housing 11 and aligning the tail sections 17 of the contacts with regard to the holes in the PC board (not shown) on which the connector 10 is mounted. The connector 10 further includes a shell 18 attached to the housing 11 with a pair of boardlocks 19 fastened to the housing 11 by a pair of rivets 20.
One problem of the aforementioned prior art connector 10 is that because the socket type contact requires more material to form its own socket configuration for receiving a pin type counterpart male contact therein and for cooperation with the pressing plate 16 for retention, the pitch (5.54 mm) of contacts 15 along the continuous raw strip 21 is substantially twice to the pitch (2.27 mm) of the passageways 14 in the housing 11. In other words, each row of passageways 14 requires two times installation of the contacts 15 associated with their carrier strips 21 wherein one is for the odd number passageways 14 and the other is for the even number passageways 14. The disadvantages of this double pitch arrangement of the strip 21 with regard to the corresponding passageways 14 includes wasting material and taking more assembling time and labor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,241, which has the same assignee with the invention, discloses a specific type socket type contact which meets the same pitch arrangement along the continuous strip with the passageway, while such shape makes it difficult to manufacture the contacts.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly having therein a plurality of socket type contacts wherein the pitch arrangement of contacts along the strip is same as that of the passageways along each row.